Parker
It’s been eight months since I kissed Becca goodbye out front of Chase’s beach house. Finally, in only two more days we’ll be together again with the whole gang for an entire week. With all of our lives being scattered across the entire United States it’ll be great getting all of us together again.
Chase has been so busy since entering the Sprint Cup Series, which kicked off its new season last month, that we’ve only seen him when he comes home to Charlotte to prepare for the following week’s race. He spends almost all of his free time at Kenzington Motorsports.
Vance and I have to practically drag him out of the garage for our weekly get together at TGIFridays every Wednesday night. It’s the one day we all set aside to get together and try to catch up on everything going on in each other’s lives.
When I broke the news to them last week, shocked doesn’t even begin to explain what they were feeling. Now I’m sitting here on the edge of my bed staring at my luggage piled on the floor as I hold the letter in my hand that’s going to change my life. I’ve known for a week, but I couldn’t find the words whenever I tried to call, FaceTime or text Becca to tell her.
I know she’s going to freak out.
Our relationship is rocky enough, doing this long distance thing with her in Athens and me in Charlotte. It hasn’t been easy. We both suffer from jealousy and frustrations of being hours apart, living two separate lives while trying to be together.
Thankfully my father gives me his private jet to use as I please. So for Valentine’s Day I flew to Georgia and surprised Becca on campus. The smile that reached ear to ear made the trip more than worth it.
We only had two days together, but they were two days that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.
These last eight months have been hard, but a great test showing me how Becca can handle being apart from me. It’s been far from easy, but to us it’s worth the struggle. I’ve never met anyone like her. She’s feisty, speaks before thinking, and dances to the beat of her own drum. She is unlike anyone I’ve ever dated. Those few short weeks we had last summer were amazing. It was spontaneous, crazy, and whirlwind romance unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.
Along the way I found myself falling in love with her. I’m hoping she loves me enough to stay with me after I break the news to her I’ve been dreading to tell her. I don’t want to spend our only week together with her upset or worst case scenario: telling me she never wants to see me again. So I’m going to make the most out of this week with her, and then before I head back to Charlotte I’ll break the news to her.
I squeeze the envelope in my fist before I get up off of my bed and walk over to my suitcase. I stare at it one more time before stuffing it into my suitcase. I know deep in my heart this is what I have to do. She won’t be happy but I hope she’ll understand. I need to separate myself from my family. Make something of myself that will make people say Parker Maclaren and think of me. Not of my father the Congressman, or my mother the alcoholic socialite who’s hanging onto her life as she knows it by a thread.
Mostly I want to be the man that Becca can be proud of.